Savvy Navvy: Find a niche by talking to its users
Savvy Navvy founder Jelte Liebrand describes turning a frustrating sailing experience into a navigation app. Conversations with other boaters helped him see a problem beyond ocean racing. The interview also covers customer-backed funding and an account-creation experiment that backfired. The business outcomes are founder-reported.
What to take into your own app
Check who else has the problem
Liebrand spoke with different kinds of boaters before deciding his own frustration represented a wider need.
Keep researching as the audience changes
A customer in another country can face different conditions. Repeat the conversations as you expand or add features.
Check what friction was protecting
Removing account creation created problems with syncing across devices. Judge changes across the whole customer experience.
A small experiment to try
Interview five people who perform the same activity differently. Ask about the last time the task went wrong, then compare the repeated problems before choosing a feature.
The original source
Good ideas get better together.
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